Beautiful Surprise
by dove1593
Summary: This is what happens when I get left alone with my thoughts and Avatar DVDs. Some five or six years after the war, one would think people would fall in love...


So, I randomly thought of this ship one day...thought it might be cute. I feel like Azula has the potential to become very Kuei-like; they'd make a funny pair.

Happy very belated Valentine's Day!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or Avatar: TLA, and they are the invention of Mike and Bryan.

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Sunshine fell in through the window and draped across her porcelain face. Her raven hair fanned out on the white pillows beneath her. The window had been left open a crack, and a gentle breeze ran over her body wrapped in silk sheets. A red silk scarf was crumpled in her hand rested next to her face. So smooth, so seamless, so beautiful.

It was almost a shame to brush my hand across her soft cheek and ruin the gentle picture. She stirred from her sleep and placed her hand with the scarf over my hand. Her eyes blinked open and shined a brilliant gold in the morning light.

"Good morning, beautiful princess," I whispered.

"You know better than to call me that," she answered with a quiet voice and a tiny smile.

I smiled now. "You're beautifully impossible, Azula." I leaned closer to her and kissed her forehead.

"What's with you today?" she asked, sitting up and unraveling the scarf from her hand.

"Do I need an excuse to wake you up?" I got up off the floor and sat next to her on the side of the bed. "Other than it's almost midday?"

"Is it really?"

I took her hand in mine. "Not yet, no. Now get dressed before it is, and the servants find me here."

She lightly elbowed me. "For a king, you certainly have plenty of rules to follow yourself." She stood and let go of my hand. Her nightgown fell gracefully around her and swept the floor as she walked.

"I don't seem to follow them very well, now do I?" I picked up the scarf left next to me on the bed. Fire Nation silk, the only thing she kept close to her from her home.

Azula laughed. I looked up. She'd thrown her robe over her shoulders and stood in front of her mirror combing her hair.

"Such a pretty face," I marveled. "Red would compliment you very much."

She glanced back at me, eyeing the scarf in my lap. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying you're gorgeous," I started, "and you should embrace yourself in your culture. It looks good on you."

Azula sighed. "I'm not that person anymore, Kuei."

"I know." I folded the scarf up and set it on her pillow. "You're still gorgeous no matter who you are, Azula."

"Now what dress should I wear today?" Azula thought aloud, probably to change the subject.

I glanced around the room. My coat was draped over the chaise under the window. When had I loaned that to her? Sometime in the winter? I smiled. I probably wouldn't find it on my shoulders again any time soon. That coat may have been one of my favorites, but it looked much better on Azula.

"Kuei?" she called.

I looked back over to her. She was leaning out of her closet; her robe now lay on the floor along with her nightgown.

"Yes, dear?" I answered.

"Would you come help me lace this up, please?"

"Of course." I got up and crossed the room.

Azula was standing in a long bunch of petticoats and holding up her corset. She was still while I laced it up for her and tied it. She reached back to me when I'd finished and placed her hands on my shoulders. I wrapped my arms around her waist.

Azula had seventeen different sets of corsets and petticoats. Half the reason I liked her dressed in her culture was because my culture was so incredibly complicated. There were two-hundred-eighty-nine different kinds of traditional dresses and robes she had memorized. In the Fire Nation, she didn't even own one corset.

"All this stuff is a lot of nonsense, Zulie," I murmured in her ear.

She laughed. "You're impossible with rules."

"You know how well I follow them," I said, my hands finding their way to her hips.

She took my hands in hers and twirled around so she faced me. "Not very well." Then she stretched up to kiss me, long and slow.

I broke away for a moment to look into her shining eyes. "Only another week and we won't be breaking so many."

"It'll only be the longest week of our lives," she commented, brushing her nose against mine.

"I beg to differ," I told her. "So what dress did you decided to wear?" I asked.

A tiny smirk grew up her lips. "Well, I was thinking one of my five-sevens, but somehow a new thirteen-nine was hanging on the back of the closet door."

"Really?"

"You know, it kind of reminds me of a dress I had back in the Fire Nation." She reached up and rested her hand on my cheek. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with it, would you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. "What do I know about dresses?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Alright, whatever you say."

"Well, why don't you put it on so I can see?" I prompted, letting go of her. "There's breakfast waiting in the garden."

She kissed my cheek. "I love you, Kuei."

"I love you too, Azula."

I left her to finish getting dressed and headed to the gardens. Everything was in place just like I'd planned. There were imported fire lilies in a large bouquet on the table under the gazebo. No breakfast like I'd told her, though. Just a bowl of cherries.

"Zuko isn't going to be very happy when he sees how many of our traditions you left out of this," a voice said.

I turned around. General Iroh.

"I know, but Azula's not that person anymore," I told him. "She said so herself this morning."

He shook his head. "She's really something else, isn't she?"

"She hasn't abandoned her heritage, don't worry." I looked over my shoulder to see if she was coming yet. "She still has a scarf from home she sleeps with."

Iroh laughed. "You know, Kuei, destiny is a funny thing. It has a way of changing its mind on people."

I sighed. "This city was always hers, wasn't it?"

He nodded. "I had a feeling it was. It still surprises me this is how she'll get it, though."

Now I laughed. "I don't think anyone could've guessed this, sir."

Iroh glanced over my shoulder. "She's coming," he said, and left the gazebo out the back stairs.

I turned around to face Azula strolling up the path in the dress I'd hung on her door that morning. Her dressmaker had joined in on our rule-breaking, and secretly made Azula a light pink robe to match the thirteen-nine pattern: the one with the longest train. She also hand-embroidered a gold and red dragon that wrapped around the skirt and up her body with its head on her shoulder.

Azula smiled when she saw me. I smiled back. Her hair cascaded down her back in loose curls. I met her right in front of the gazebo and wrapped her in my arms.

"You look so beautiful, Azula," I murmured in her ear. "I can't believe it."

She pushed away and held onto me at arms' length. "Believe what?"

"That you could be any more beautiful." I leaned over to kiss the top of her head. "And you're mine."

She laughed a small, quiet laugh. "You always say I'm beautiful, but is that all you see?"

"Of course not, Azula, you know that," I reminded her. "You're smart and witty, and you love everything I love. How many couples can read the same book together?"

A big, brilliant smile filled her face. "You're amazing. I didn't think you'd enjoy _The Lilies in Winter_."

I gently kissed her. "How could I not? I was reading it with you."

"You're so wonderful, Kuei." She let go of me to hold my hand as we walked to the table with no breakfast. Azula took one look at the table, then looked up at me. "What are you up to?"

I shrugged. "Not much. Would you like a cherry?" I picked up one by the stem.

She took the cherry a little reluctantly and bit it off the stem. She set the stem down on the table and moved her fingers delicately across the petals of the flowers. "These are fire lilies," she said. "How did you manage this?"

"I'm a king," I said. "Anything is possible."

She shook her head. "Just tell me what's going on."

"I can't tell you, love." I picked up the bouquet and handed it to her. "But if you'll hold onto these, I can certainly show you."

Azula took the flowers and linked her arm with mine. "You're awfully lucky I let you get away with these things."

"You'll love this, I promise."

I led her off the back of the gazebo and through a short path lined with red rose bushes. In another gazebo at the end of the path, Zuko and Mai, Iroh, Ty Lee, and Aang were standing, waiting for us.

Azula's jaw dropped when she saw them. "What are you up to!" she exclaimed, almost dropping the lilies.

"I didn't see why we needed to wait another week," I said, wrapping my arm around her waist so she didn't faint. "I want to marry you now."

She couldn't speak. Her porcelain face was flushed pink enough to match her dress. She leaned against me. "Kuei, I love you."

I helped her up to the gazebo. "I love you too. That's why we're here."

Azula got so she could stand on her own, and Aang married us. She was completely mesmerized. Her hands were shaking as she lit candles in her Fire Nation tradition. She only stopped shaking when I pulled her into my arms and kissed her soft and sweet.

When she pulled away, she leaned her head on my shoulder and whispered, "I liked this surprise, but no more."

"Alright. Then I suppose you wouldn't be interested in the actual breakfast back in the palace?"

She gently pinched my side. "You're impossible."


End file.
